The Kagome Paradox
by Mobius Shadow
Summary: Kagome and Inuyasah DO have a child after all. And then that child begets. And soforth. And then, a while later, that child has Kagome. Who gets hit by a truck...
1. Time as a Loop

The Kagome Paradox  
  
*  
  
Disclaimer Mad Lib: I don't [verb] the characters of this [noun]. I promise to be [adjective] to them, and will put them back in [place] when I am done. Now, please enjoy reading my piece of fan- [noun], which will undoubtedly [verb] you.  
  
*  
  
It was one of those "Ahh, get it off me!" rainy days, and Kagome and friends were in the local library, cornerstone of knowledge, killing time. The Higurashi's were having the shrine and the house fumigated after Mrs. Higurashi had come down with something that was either the common cold or SARS. The doctors were having trouble deciding. She was currently in the hospital with a fever that was 99 in our system of heat.  
  
Inuyasha had come through the well, and was now unable to get back through due to the whole shrine complex being covered in blue tarps and inspected by men dressed like trench troopers from the First World War.  
  
Inuyasha knew they looked like trench troopers, because Kagome was showing him a picture.  
  
"British gas masks protected the whole face, unlike Sango's, and those funny looking round helmets are for protecting you from shrapnel."  
  
"Who is Shrapnel?"  
  
"Bomb fragments."  
  
Inuyasha wanted back into the feudal era badly. Suddenly an idea hit him.  
  
"Kagome, do these books go back all the way to the warring era?"  
  
"Some of them. Why?"  
  
"Well, this may sound silly, but couldn't we just look in one of them and see if we kill Naraku in the end?"  
  
Kagome's mouth fell open. There was an interesting period of silence, in which her face ran the gamut of emotions and came out looking confused again.  
  
*  
  
The book the librarian recommended to them was, in fact, a composition by a priestess of old, between Kikyo and Kagome's time. It kept important dates and major events like comets and volcanic eruptions. Kagome and Inuyasha turned to an old tome in what was, in fact, a series of volumes.  
  
They opened it.  
  
The first thing they got was a woodcut of the village, and a bit of text, done in odd handwriting.  
  
"That's odd. The writing looks like kind of like what they teach in school. Let's see." Kagome perused the page with a finger. "This is- ohm, not long after we left last, only a few years. This should be good. Let's see.  
  
"The new village priestess has settled in nicely. The demon invasions have reduced considerably both in size and frequency. All had settled back into peace and quietness."  
  
"Ugh," said Inuyasha, turning back to the picture of World War One in their first book, "That sounds so DULL. What the hell is 'mustard gas'?"  
  
"Corrosive inhalant that fills the lungs with blood," said Kagome absentmindedly. "Hey, I think this sounds nice. See, we defeated Naraku after all. I LIKE that idea."  
  
"So do it, but does it really say 'peace and quiet'? Because if it does, I'm enlisting in the First World War."  
  
"Well, total peace just isn't for some people I suppose."  
  
Kagome later wondered, for years, whether she would have been happier in the ignorance she was currently living in, which would have killed her. But she turned the page, and lived.  
  
Because when she turned the page, what greeted her was a splendid full-page woodcut, done with skill and confidence.  
  
It showed a village gathering, with many happy faces in the background. The day was nice, the trees were in bloom, and all set the mood for the centerpiece of the picture.  
  
Inuyasha and Kagome were sitting together on a log, in front of the crowd, and Kagome was holding a baby.  
  
Inuyasha, who was at that moment reading a paragraph on a very impressive sounding person named Kaiser Wilhelm, when he heard the gasp.  
  
"What is it?'  
  
No answer.  
  
"What is it, Kagome?"  
  
"Okay, I'll look." He spun around in his seat. He liked swivel chairs, and when nobody was around, he would spin himself dizzy in the one in the Higurashi household. And he saw the picture.  
  
There was one of those silences you get when the airplane has dropped the bomb but the mushroom cloud hasn't come up yet.  
  
It lasted five whole minutes.  
  
"Huh," said Inuyasha, at last, choking it out. "Do you think we were married?"  
  
Kagome was crying now, and making choking noises. A horrible possibility had hit her.  
  
"It's not just that," she sobbed. "I think *sob* that-" She broke down crying again.  
  
"Yes?" Inuyasha was cuddling her now. One of the library attendants gave them a funny look, but Inuyasha bared his fangs and the librarian suddenly remembered some non-fiction he had to shelve.  
  
"Inuyasha-" no longer crying, adamant, "Inuyasha, I should have seen it before. My family has been in this area all these years, and the ancestry always looks so much the same from the old photos." She sobbed again. "Inuyasha, I'm MY OWN ANCESTOR.  
  
* 


	2. Shell Shock

Inuyasha looked at her.  
  
"What?"  
  
Kagome pulled up what she had heard on the subject: "We travel through time. So if I were to have a child with you in the Feudal Era, then the child might have a whole succession of children, and after enough generations, one of the children is ME."  
  
"That's a novelty. That also makes you my great-great-something granddaughter." There was a pause, and they both appeared to have motion sickness. Inuyasha recovered first.  
  
"It doesn't bother me if it doesn't bother you."  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"Well, after living with Miroku for so long you really loose all perspective-"  
  
"SIT!"  
  
Kagome dashed out the door into the pouring rain.  
  
Inuyasha disentangled himself from what had been a perfectly good swivel chair a minute ago.  
  
*  
  
Kagome didn't run very far. It was too cold. She just walked on, silently, in a stupor.  
  
Like one of the men in the picture in the book on World War one.  
  
Shell shock. That was it- shell shock.  
  
How could she live with herself? She loved Inuyasha, but if they. had a child, then she would be her own ancestor.  
  
Then again, were their any social taboos against being one's own mother? It wasn't EXACTLY incest, was it?  
  
Miroku would know. But he was in the Feudal Era, undoubtedly trying his luck on some poor unfortunate.  
  
So what could she do? She couldn't undo the damage without entering a paradox; but if the didn't that would require giving up free will. Or something like that. Oh, WHY hadn't she paid attention in Physics?  
  
Because you were out socializing with your great-great-etc.-grandfather and future husband.  
  
Oh no! What would Inuyasha do. Surely he was more hurt than he looked. She had to go back! She had to explain-  
  
What could she explain, if she didn't know any more than he did.  
  
It really shouldn't have been a surprise, she decided in the rain. She had been more and more in love with him as time went by, and he really didn't seem to mind so much as he once did. And if they had had a child, what would Inuyasha have done? He couldn't come and live in the modern world; he just wasn't cut out for it. So they would have stayed in the past.  
  
She had known it all, really; she just hadn't put it together.  
  
She never saw the truck, as she raced back to the library.  
  
*  
  
No, this isn't finished. 


	3. Time Scar

*  
  
Oto Hinatamura was totally unprepared for what happened. He was a truck driver, and even among that group he was notoriously quick on his feet. And he hit the brakes with plenty of room to spare. If the road hadn't been wet, she would have lived. If she had seen him coming, and moved in time, she would have lived. If he hadn't been going as fast as he was, and it was not speeding, just fast, the breaks would have worked better and she would have lived.  
  
If. If. If.  
  
Kagome Higurashi had been in the road, and was caught like a deer in the headlights  
  
-What will Inuyasha think? I have to tell him, I ha- what, better move better-  
  
She was knocked flying by the collision.  
  
*  
  
Inuyasha, who was chasing Kagome's scent, heard the crash half a mile off. The truck had veered and had rolled over. He knew it when he saw it. He was so impressed by the wreck, which had taken out a storefront, he almost missed-  
  
It couldn't be. It just couldn't.  
  
He stopped. He could hear sirens in the distance. He could feel the rain. But none of it mattered. Kagome was dead.  
  
*  
  
He went back to the library with the express intention of killing himself. He didn't want to live. He went back in, sat down in a stately fashion in another swivel chain and broke down crying.  
  
*  
  
Minds have several parts. Freud called them the Ego, the Super Ego, and the Id. Demons are more complex. Inuyasha had been equipped from birth with the Ego, the Id, the Vengeance and the Compassion. He was a dog demon; he thought in terms of vengeance and compassion. But a fourth personality trait had formed, a sort of combination of the other three to take over for the absent Super Ego. This new state of mind was the Clock, a purely mechanical state of mind in which the emotions can't take it any more and shut down. The Clock did anything to keep the mind busy, and it was mulling over time travel as Kagome had put it before she was DON'T THINK THAT.  
  
All right. Time travel as Kagome had put it. If she and he had a kid, then they would have stayed, and the kid would have had kids, and they would have had kids, and eventually one of them would either be Kagome's mother or her father. And then Kagome would meet him, and they would have kids.  
  
Okay. This was not right. Kagome was dead, and they hadn't had kids, so how could Kagome have been born in the-  
  
Oh no.  
  
Time all down the fourth dimension cut loose and flapped in the breeze.  
  
*  
  
Inuyasha's Clock Mind rattled down the possibilities. Kagome was dead. If she was dead, then there could have been no Kagome.  
  
This universe was doomed. But it hadn't shut down, not yet. For some reason, something was keeping it open. Other, parallel universes would take over in its wake.  
  
What was holding this universe together?  
  
He thought, and after a while went back to the book of the shrine and read it so more. Kagome had obviously written this, but when. The subjective future; the future she had when she went back and forth through time. To an outsider, a zigzag pattern appeared; to Kagome it was a straight line. So, if some event in the subjective future didn't happen, this universe would never be.  
  
This was hard work  
  
So, if he didn't save Kagome's life, she would never exist.  
  
A new vein of thought broke through.  
  
What if Kagome didn't want to be saved, what if she was happier dead, what if she had killed herself.  
  
Inuyasha's blood ran cold. He loved her too much to subject her to a life he himself would have admitted was rough- being one's own ancestor.  
  
And then he looked at the picture again. Kagome had such JOY in her eyes. She was proud of having their baby; and, in terms of subjective time, she would have known about it by the time she and Inuyasha. he still couldn't image doing anything romantic with Kagome. It was weird, but any romantic scenario he could envision in his mind always saw her slapping him and running off to the future if he tried to kiss her. Well. There stood the evidence. The Kagome he knew must have some buried love for him. Somewhere.  
  
He would save her. 


	4. Full Circle

*  
  
His first decision was easy. How he was going to do it wasn't, and if whatever had led Kagome to love Inuyasha in the future didn't happen, but was supposed to, during that period of time, then the universe would end.  
  
A panic hit him. What will happen to me?  
  
It doesn't matter. Kagome matters.  
  
*  
  
"Who is the smartest man alive?"  
  
The librarian looked like he was going to have a heart attack.  
  
"TELL ME, DAMMIT!" Inuyasha reached across the counter and picked the man up by his collar.  
  
"Stephan Hawking?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"I have a-" choking noise- "book of his here, would you like it?" Inuyasha took it.  
  
*  
  
The book was dense. It was too hard for Inuyasha, but it conveyed one idea through the mists of algebra and applied trigonometric logic.  
  
There were other ways to travel through time other than the well.  
  
"What do you have on time travel?"  
  
The librarian, who had been about to call the police, put the phone down, grabbed another, thicker book, and handed it to Inuyasha.  
  
It was called Theories of Time Travel, and Inuyasha, who was a much better reader than Kagome had ever known him to be, sped through it.  
  
What it said, in a nutshell, was that you had to build a worm hole, whatever that was, or go faster than the speed of light, in order to go back.  
  
Well, how hard could going faster than light be?  
  
"Hey you!"  
  
The librarian, who had been on his way out the door, working hours be damned, seized up. Inuyasha recognized the motion.  
  
"Don't try running; I'll catch you. Now: how fast does light go?"  
  
The man sagged. "Faster than matter can move."  
  
Oh. Well, so much for that idea.  
  
"How do I make a worm hole in-" he glanced at his book- "Space and Time?"  
  
"I don't know. You have to cut through the dimensions, and-"  
  
"Did you say 'cut' the dimensions?"  
  
"Well, metaphorically-"  
  
*  
  
Inuyasha was standing outside, sword in hand. The plan was relatively simple: Cut through time and save Kagome's life. All he'd have to do was go back a few minutes, and he couldn't do that with the well.  
  
This had to work.  
  
He had to aim for the TIME SCAR, the weak spot in the fourth dimension, and slash through.  
  
First, he conditioned himself to look for the wind scar. There it was; weak spot in the density in the atmosphere, minimal resistance and maximum cutting power.  
  
But could he see time?  
  
Of course he could. He was INUYASHA! How hard could it be?  
  
He looked. The wind scar and the world dimmed a bit, and, gradually, he could see something.  
  
Pinpricks of light danced on a fabric like velvet; time was as black as ink. As black as Kagome's hair. Tears came to his eyes; time vanished.  
  
He tried again. This time the blue-black surface, a ribbon dangling off the ends of the universe, was clearer. And he looked closely. The ripples were getting bigger; lasting longer. Time was tearing itself apart.  
  
And he looked closer, and the pinpricks became- PEOPLE. Physical matter dancing back and forth down the timeline. He saw dozens of Kagomes, wending back and forth, all of them subjectively in the past. He saw a man in a telephone booth with a scarf wrapped around his neck. He saw a car made out of what looked like stainless steel roaring away from view.  
  
This was the world of the well; Inuyasha recognized it. Those stars were people; there were other time travelers.  
  
He looked even closer. The ripples became finer. He had to cut at them; go back in time and-  
  
He slashed.  
  
*  
  
He sat in the library, waiting for the universe to fold up on him like Mrs. Higurashi's abominable deck chair. The vibrations in time, which had never seen going down the well, were now too strong to ignore. They were shredding time; undermining it.  
  
What was missing? Why hadn't he been able to cut the time scar?  
  
SHARDS. The word hit his Ego upside the head and bitch slapped his Id for good measure.  
  
Of course!  
  
None of the others could travel down the well; they didn't have whatever extra boost was required.  
  
Maybe the shards had that boost.  
  
Inside five minutes he was inside Kagome's house and going through her stuff. They had to be here SOMEWHERE . . .  
  
He finally found them on her desk. He wondered what to do with them- swallow them?  
  
He dropped the bottle down the front of his shirt.  
  
And he tried again.  
  
This time, the space-fabric was vibrating in all directions, hard and fast. He realized that his universe was probably due to collapse within minutes, unless he and Kagome did whatever it was that cemented their relationship enough to have a child, who would have Kagome, and that would save the world.  
  
He found the time scar, and he cut forward.  
  
*  
  
Kagome didn't run very far. It was too cold. She just walked on, silently, in a stupor.  
  
Like one of the men in the picture in the book on World War One.  
  
Shell shock. That was it- shell shock.  
  
How could she live with herself? She loved Inuyasha, but if they. had a child, then she would be her own ancestor.  
  
Then again, were their any social taboos against being one's own mother? It wasn't EXACTLY incest, was it?  
  
Miroku would know. But he was in the Feudal Era, undoubtedly trying his luck on some poor unfortunate.  
  
So what could she do? She couldn't undo the damage without entering a paradox; but if the didn't that would require giving up free will. Or something like that. Oh, WHY hadn't she paid attention in Physics?  
  
Because you were out socializing with your great-great-etc.-grandfather and future husband.  
  
Oh no! What would Inuyasha do. Surely he was more hurt than he looked. She had to go back! She had to explain-  
  
What could she explain, if she didn't know any more than he did.  
  
It really shouldn't have been a surprise, she decided in the rain. She had been more and more in love with him as time went by, and he really didn't seem to mind so much as he once did. And if they had had a child, what would Inuyasha have done? He couldn't come and live in the modern world; he just wasn't cut out for it. So they would have stayed in the past.  
  
She had known it all, really; she just hadn't put it together.  
  
What would she tell him? She wasn't sure she really loved him like that; wasn't sure she COULD love him like that.  
  
She started to step out into the street, and felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around, annoyed at the rain and the situation. A large truck, driven by one Oto Hinatamura, swished by.  
  
Good, thought Inuyasha, who had raced up behind her, now if she wants to live she can. It's her call now.  
  
She turned around, and saw him. He stood before her, and there were tears in his eyes.  
  
"Look, Inuyasha-"  
  
"Kagome!" He grabbed her, hugged her tightly. She gasped a little from surprise. "Oh Kagome, I missed you. I love you so much, please don't ever leave again."  
  
"What?" She grabbed him by his shoulders and held him out and arms' length. "But Inuyasha, I was only gone-"  
  
"Kagome, I would so anything for you. I love you." He was crying freely now. "I don't know how time works and I don't care if you are related to me, Kagome. I couldn't live without you."  
  
And he kissed her on the mouth.  
  
Kagome Higurashi was stunned for a moment, and the Slap Reflex came on. But she let it pass, and wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back. Overhead, the rain had stopped and the sun was out.  
  
She did love him, she realized. She always had, it had just been hidden by the glare of his flaws. But she saw past the glare now, and it seemed trivial.  
  
"I will be your wife, Inuyasha."  
  
*  
  
END  
  
*  
  
Author's Notes  
  
This idea hit me out of the blue. I don't know where it came from, but it grew on my mental processes like a phage. The thought was: What if Kagome is her own ancestor? If you think about it, this story is in fact a highly logical way for the series to end.  
  
A reviewer, Sparkling Cyanide, has said that this story looks rather like Robert Heinlien's "All You Zombies". I have read a summary of this story and Cyanide is, to some degree, correct. But at this point it looks much more like Isaac Asimov's book The End of Eternity, which is very good and very old and very out-of-print. In it, something almost exactly the same as the Bone Well exists- the Kettle System, which travels in shafts down that dimension. People called Eternals, who patch up history as they see fit, which causes lives to exist or not exist, run it. That's where I got the term 'subjective time'; that or something by Heinlein. I honestly can't remember.  
  
Another reviewer says he/she finds this hilarious. I wasn't going for hilarious, I must say (although I did put in some humor, me being me), but maybe it is hilarious and I'm just missing something. 


End file.
